Nice & Easy Shelves!

I had a wall that was in desperate need of some happiness. I spent quite a few weeks thinking about what I would do, and when I came up with the idea of a couple off-set shelves, I knew I had the answer.

This is a room I spent quite a few weeks on removing the orange-peel texture by plastering over it and painting it "Dune". With this new blank canvas... I measured and decided on the length of shelves.

I went to Home Depot and got myself some straight pine boards. Most boards are warped a bit, so I had a real good look for ones that were as straight as I could find.

The board screwed into the wall is 3.5" wide and the board that is the shelf, is 7" wide. Both boards are 3/4" thick. (These are actual measurements, not wood-world measurements:)

The narrow board was first screwed into the edge of the wide board. I pre-drilled all my holes, but connected the ends first, drilling and screwing everything in between afterward. Then I painted them black. I used a stud finder to screw them into the wall with long screws.

Shelves like this wouldn't be too good for a row of books, but since they were for decoration, their construction is strong enough for these small things.

Check out HERE if you want to read more about the stacked photo boxes on the shelf.

Short post, but an easy project!

A Sepia Project

(My post from Outta This Funk)
Last summer I decided to do a project where I would photograph my family around the same couple of weeks with the sepia setting on my camera. Kind of a moment-in-time type of project.


I got these cool nested boxes from Provo Craft, stained them walnut and cut brown cardstock to fit inside of each of them.
Then I treated each piece of cardstock as a simple scrapbook page, attaching my sepia photo, and decorating each of them wit a simple ribbon and metal embellishment or two. I used the largest box for 4 photos because I didn't have enough boxes for everyone.

They are essentially frames, but because they are actually boxes, they stack on my shelf. I'm thoroughly pleased with the end result.
TFL!

Red Accents

I really enjoy the color red and even considered painting my kitchen cupboards red. I decided against it because I’d rather wait for a new kitchen (however long that takes) than to put all that effort into painting cupboards. I do however have plenty of red accents. Whatever color you use to accent a room, here are a few ideas for you to spread it around.

This post is kind of a multi-project post, but without much how-to. Maybe I can elaborate on a project or two in the future, but for now, here’s an inspirational post.

This first project of circles I found at a yard sale, they had mirrors behind them and were a gray shade of white. They cost .25 cents each. I pulled off the mirrors from the back and spray painted them red. They hang here in the gap between my fridge and my pantry.

This bookcase I bought at the same yard sale for $1. It was in a terrible state and it wasn’t even square from the top to the sides. I mixed up some dry powder putty, built up the corners to be flush, and I painted it red on the outside and white on the inside. (I will one day come up with something clever to put on the shelves.)

This strange thing is layered wood painted red. I wanted to carry some red down to this end of the room, and decided to create a piece of “sculpture” (for lack of a better word:) I cut various lengths of wood, hammered them together with tiny nails, painted it red, and then applied some white rubons from the Dee’s Designs Distressed Effects by My Minds Eye. They are a few years old now, but I love them!!! I know Dee, and it pleases me to have something she designed as part of my home décor. (This isn’t the only place I’ve used her rubons in my house! Might share that another time too.) Then all I had to do was hang it up!

I went through a spate of making a bunch of Rag Mirrors. I adore fabric and came up with a way to incorporate a bunch of fabric pieces into one project. I’ve hung this little guy at my head height next to the door to the garage so I can check my hair or face before I leave. I love mirrors as room accents, I just prefer them to hang where I’m not going to be seeing my reflection all the time! Mirrors are an awesome accent if used correctly and in the right places.

I also have red accents I didn’t make, like these 3 red stars, a red vase and a couple red flowers. I try to keep my accents and décor accessories to a minimum so the pieces I have will be seen and appreciated. Yes I’ve been impressed before by a busy collection of accessories in a room, but it is a hard look to pull off, and business isn’t really me. One day maybe I will figure out how Candice Olson (Divine Design) manages to fill a room with accessories and still keep it looking tidy. She’s amazing at that.

Hope I may have brought a little inspiration to you and that you might have fun accenting with a punch of color.

Got a broken chair?

As I've mentioned before, spray paint is one of my favorite tools! I'm always after a quick result when doing a project. This chair was going to be thrown away, so I asked if I could have it.

The spinner was broken, the arms were coming off, and it wasn't in any state to be used as a chair. I could see that the bolts on the arms had been tightened a few times, but the glue was broken, so the sturdiness was totally gone.

The two cushions on the chair were attached by bolts and screws. I removed those, and took off the arms. I sanded the chair down, put glue on the arm joints, and bolted the arms back on.

Gorilla glue expands as it dries, and bubbles up. This can cause problems if you are going to stain something you've used it on. Because I was going to paint my chair, I didn't worry about the expansion, and I sanded down the spill-over when it was dry.

On the bottom section, I cut 4" off the leg length. This chair was just too tall to fit at a normal height desk, plus the fact I wanted to add a pair of casters to the bottom (that I've hung onto for 2 years) so that it would roll. Then I slowly and evenly I painted it black.

I forgot to mention, I went to Home Depot and I bought a Lazy Susan as my swivel replacement. The old one was totally broken. I didn't really expect Home Depot to have a replacement, but a guy there showed me the lazy susan, and it had a weight limit of 500 lbs. Well, surely that will do! Especially for $4.59 + tax.

Once it was all dry, I reassembled it with the new lazy susan and the old cushions. I drilled holes into the bottom of the legs and inserted my four used casters. Now I've got a useful cute chair!